Timor-Leste became the 172nd contracting party to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention) on January 17 2023, according to the official website of the United Nations. The Convention will enter into force for Timor-Leste on 17 April 2023.

The New York Convention is the most important treaty in the field of international commercial arbitration, which stipulates the validity of arbitration agreements and the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, and is the legal basis and important guarantee for the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards of various countries abroad.

China and Timor-Leste established diplomatic relations on 20 May 2002. In 2014, the two countries formally established a comprehensive cooperative partnership of good-neighborliness, friendship, mutual trust and benefits. The governments signed trade agreements along with a number of economic and technical cooperation agreements, and established the China-Timor-Leste Joint Economic and Trade Committee. In 2017, Timor-Leste officially became a member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the governments signed a MOU on Belt and Road cooperation. In 2021, bilateral trade in the Middle East increased by 94.1%, and China became Timor-Leste's largest trading partner for the first time.

(Source: International Arbitration Newsletter)